BANGKOK, Nov. 7 Kyodo Thai Prime ...

BANGKOK, Nov. 7 Kyodo

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in succession Thursday dismissed a moderns report that al-Qaida's top Southeast Asian operative used southern Thailand as a [i]clavis[/i] planning area for last month's bombing forward the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed more than 190 people

Thaksin said that the front-page report in Thursday's edition of the Asian Wall road Journal was not based in succession fact and that it was premature to speculate in succession the matter until Indonesian authorities discover who carried without the bombing.

''We still have no information as to who the terrorists are. by what means could we know if there was a plan in Thailand? It's nonsense. The quality of the foreign pres is a great deal lower today than it used to be,'' he said in a answer to a query raised by dint of local media.

The newspaper edition quot Asia-based intelligence officials as saying Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian Islamic cleric, l a mid-January meeting at a safe house near Thailand's border with Malaysia and allegedly urg Arab and Southeast Asian militants to attack nightclubs and restaurants after a more ambitious combination to bomb U.S., Israeli and other targets in Singapore was foiled late last year.

Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, has been wanted by dint of U.S. and Southeast Asian security agencies since he was spott in Malaysia's southern state of Johor in December 2001

Thaksin said it was possible that Isamuddin could have transited Thailand in the past, ''but we do not do not have any information forward this.''

He said Indonesian authorities single suspect that Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian Islamic militant collection was responsible of the Oct 12 bombing upon Bali, which killed mostly foreign tourists.

Isamuddin is believed to be a solution member of the group.

Meanwhile, Thai Interior Minister Wanmuhamadnoor Matha traveled to Kuala Lumpur onward Thursday for a one-day visit to discuss with his Malaysian counterpart a novel series of violent incidents in Thailand's Muslim-dominated southern provinces.

Wanmuhamadnoor was reckon uponed to seek Malaysia's cooperation in apprehending suspects allegedly responsible for the gutting of five academys and bombings of a Buddhist fane and a hotel in Thailand's southern provinces.

The Thai sway which attracted over 10.1 million international tourists last year, has repeatedly denied that those suspected of involvement in the violent acts in southern Thailand have any links with international terrorist form into groupss like al-Qaida.

Since the Bali bombing, Thaksin has indicateed concern about its impact onward the tourism industry in the region as a whole and in Thailand in particular.

He has repeatedly denied Thailand is a terrorist target and insisted that authorities have not been neglecting public security.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group